Saab Grintek has been awarded the contracts to supply Tasbert Park, Witbank and Alexandra, Johannesburg with prepaid metres by the Witbank Housing Corporation and City Power.
These contracts include converting the existing 5 000 metres in the Witbank Housing Corporation Project to prepaid metres, as well as supplying and installing prepaid metres to 60 000 homes in Alexandra.
The prepaid metre system is a state-of-the-art solution for remote and bulk metre reading, vending and pre-payment. It also includes a load control system. The system enables the local authorities to streamline existing operations, reducing overheads and improving customer service.
The metres will also help to improve payment rates and arrears recovery as well as assist in preventing debt escalation. In addition, it will allow for the automatic implementation of connections and disconnections as well as aid in enforcing the authorised credit policy.
As for home owners, the metres are an ideal solution to manage their electricity consumption since they provide users with access to real-time information.
The technology has the ability to detect breakdowns in the system's integrity. For example, if metres are tampered with result in a break down, the alert information will be sent to the necessary authorities.
Communication is carried out via a combination of Power Line Carrier Communications (PLCC) trunked radio, GSM, GPRS and RS485 communications to optimise operational costs. It will also see to the ease and cost of installation and reliability of communications.
Encryption and transaction numbers on all communications, as well as the fact that no human intervention or transactions are necessary in the payment-to-dispensing cycle, ensures a high level of integrity.
Home owners will be issued with "credit card" sized cards, encoded with their metre number. They will be able to purchase their required units of electricity 24 hours a day from an ATM-type vending machine situated at the local authorities offices and community centres. Upon payment, units are automatically logged and dispensed immediately.
"This integrated approach can be applied in any area. Various pilot projects have proven highly successful in delivering on government promise of Batho Pele," said Lawrence Juku of Grinpal, a subsidiary of Saab Grintek. "These projects should prove highly sustainable due the innovative technology provided by Saab Grintek."
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Saab is one of the world's leading high-technology companies, with its main operations focusing on defence, aviation and space. The group covers a broad spectrum of competence and capability in systems integration.
Saab Grintek
Saab Grintek is a leading high-technology partnership between Kunene Bros Holdings (29.7%) and Saab AB (70.3%). The company specialises in telecommunications and selected niche opportunities within industrial and defence electronics.
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